The way things have been managed were driven by very short-term considerations for the political security of the ruling regime. The idea of doing anything to avoid instability at any cost - and this has caused wrong decisions to be made with very limited economic resources.

Live from Cairo, political economist Amr Adly examines the roots of Egypt's current political and economic dilemma - contractions in global trade and mismanagement of the national economy weaken the President Sisi's influence over the public sector, a group whose support the regime needs most to enact economic reforms, but who stand to lose the most from those reforms - and explains why expanding the political sphere may divert a worsening crisis.

Amr is author of the paper Egypt’s Regime Faces an Authoritarian Catch-22 for the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Interview transcript via Antidote Zine